It's 30 degrees in Cancun,
12 degrees in Paris,
10 degrees in Victoria,
Lake Louise has 2 new inches of snow,
an it's 16 degrees in Funabashi, Japan and a beautiful day.
I had a normal day at school. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how fast planning went today. Especially after having an hour and a half of that time taken up by a staff meeting. And then no one from my playgroup showed up today, it meant that I was able to get two weeks ahead in that one class for planning. I have one class today that bares mentioning. It’s two girls about 12 years old, intro level so really low English language skills, and really good friends outside of school. It’s a great class. I felt like I was actually able to teach in the true sense of the word. I was able to forget all of the cynical rhetoric and really relate to these girls. They barely speak English and I speak like no Japanese and yet we’re able to communicate enough to learn something about each other and to share a few laughs and even learn a few words of our the other language. They actually said that my Japanese was really good!!! It’s only because I dropped like 2 words all night with perfect timing so they were easily impressed. I feel like I was actually teaching because there was a bond formed with all of us trying to interact with each other on some level, as opposed to them just listening and repeating whatever I say without learning anything (which was my class before them...it was pooey). I hope I don’t get too disillusioned by them.
After school I hung out in front of the station with the other Michelle and was able to meet up with some other teachers on their way home. Then after I left them, I was at my own home station when I came across two other teachers from our school. They asked me to join them for a drink so I went along and met up with some other girls at a local restaurant. We had a great time. I am surprised with all of the teachers about how much they want to talk about the school and classes and school politics and all that. When I get off the last thing that I want to really be talking about, other than in my journal, is any school stuff. I was generally enlightened to school goings-on and other drama and what the receptionists are like at schools that I don’t teach at. We discussed this and that and counting classifications in Japanese and had a generally good time getting to know each other. We talked about things in Japan that annoy us, like tattoos being taboo in all gyms and the school. We talked about crazy students that we have. We traded Japanese words and teaching tricks & stories. We talked about noticing other foreigners around us that we don’t know. Noticing tourists, who are obviously tourists and they kind of look at you and smile and we smile back but inside we're thinking "We're different, you think we're the same because we're not Japanese, but I live here and we're different". I have been calling myself a gaijin all this time and tonight I found out that it’s really only ever the actual gaijin that use that word because it’s really derogatory. The word that the Japanese use is gaikokujin, which means foreign country person, whereas the gaijin evidently has a connotation of ‘barbarian’ and is only used in really racist terms by any Japanese. The etymology of barbarian is something along the lines of the Greeks saying that of the Northerners that they sound like all they are saying is bar bar bar, hence barbarian. These are the kinds of topics of conversation you find among EFL teachers in a local bar/restaurant in Japan.
You aren’t allowed to pour your own drink, which pretty much guarantees a constantly full glass because you may limit yourself if you’re pouring for yourself but others will just keep pouring in hopes that you will fill their glass. I was thankful to have some contact with other English speakers, outside of the school setting, and to feel like some of the frustrations that I have with students and the school and life here are all founded and I’m not crazy. I like the word ‘and’ tonight. Some days I’m all for the comma but tonight I’m all about the conjunctions.
Tonight as I finish my dinner of a bowl of rice and a glass of 350 yen a bottle wine I realize that life is good and even better when shared with people who can understand where you come from.
I live in Japan.
Sometimes I just have to remind myself.
